Forestry policy reform and the role of incentives in Tanzania

The Government of Tanzania is addressing ongoing degradation problems with a new Forest Policy that reflects changes in the national and international policy environment for forest management. The paper looks at some aspects of forest policy reform, based on the underlying assumption that roles, functions, characteristics and performance of institutions and organizations for natural resources management — on different administrative levels — are essential factors for promoting sustainable resource use and development. The authors argue that policy design critically depends on a proper analysis of the incentives structures at work, and propose five issues for forest policy development in a developing country context.